Various communications, medical, computing, industrial, and other systems implement isolation barriers to electrically isolate sections of electronic circuitry. An isolator is a device that can transfer a signal between sections of electronic circuitry while maintaining electrical isolation between the sections.
A typical conventional design attains isolation, for example, by connecting to a communication channel through a transformer. The transformer provides isolation both for surge and galvanic isolation. Power can be transmitted on the line through the transformer.
Some circuits and systems have input and output circuitry powered by power supplies that are mutually isolated, for example power supplies with different ground potentials or systems with an isolated DC-DC converter with transformers to derive power for one side of an isolation barrier from power supplied to the other side of the barrier.